Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non‐detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non‐governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer‐reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non‐detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio‐temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large‐scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data.

SUMMARY: Assessment of the suitability of anthropogenic landscapes for wildlife species is crucial for setting priorities for biodiversity conservation. This study aimed to analyse the environmental suitability of a highly fragmented region of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the world's 25 recognized biodiversity hotspots, for forest bird species. Eight forest bird species were selected for the analyses, based on point counts (n= 122) conducted in April–September 2006 and January–March 2009. Six additional variables (landscape diversity, distance from forest and streams, aspect, elevation and slope) were modelled in Maxent for (1) actual and (2) simulated land cover, based on the forest expansion required by existing Brazilian forest legislation. Models were evaluated by bootstrap or jackknife methods and their performance was assessed by AUC, omission error, binomial probability orpvalue. All predictive models were statistically significant, with high AUC values and low omission errors. A small proportion of the actual landscape (24.41 ± 6.31%) was suitable for forest bird species. The simulated landscapes lead to an increase ofc.30% in total suitable areas. In average, models predicted a small increase (23.69 ± 6.95%) in the area of suitable native forest for bird species. Being close to forest increased the environmental suitability of landscapes for all bird species; landscape diversity was also a significant factor for some species. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that species distribution modelling (SDM) successfully predicted bird distribution across a heterogeneous landscape at fine spatial resolution, as all models were biologically relevant and statistically significant. The use of landscape variables as predictors contributed significantly to the results, particularly for species distributions over small extents and at fine scales. This is the first study to evaluate the environmental suitability of the remaining Brazilian Atlantic Forest for bird species in an agricultural landscape, and provides important additional data for regional environmental planning.

Invasive exotic species can negatively impact local biodiversity. We present here a report of a nest predation of an endemic bird species, variable oriole (Icterus pyrrhopterus) by the introduced black-tufted marmoset (Callithrix penicillata) in an agricultural landscape highly disturbed by human activities. Two nestlings were predated, by adults of the introduced marmoset during two alternate days. Antipredator behavior and vocal mimicry were observed in variable oriole, while copulation was observed in black-tufted marmoset during the predation. The use of mobbing against predators by I. pyrrhopterus was observed and it is described here by the first time. The potential impact of the introduced marmosets to local biodiversity is discussed.

Sugarcane and cattle pastures are two of the most widespread and economically important agricultural landscapes. However, in Brazil, they have not been properly investigated for their importance to native birds and wildlife conservation. Thus, we aim to characterize and compare bird assemblages of sugarcane and cattle pastures; and understand how landscape features within both habitats influence bird assemblages. We surveyed birds in both agricultural habitats over one year, and then investigated the relationship between species richness and composition with landscape diversity, matrix permeability, and the size and distribution of natural forests close to both habitats. We observed 132 species in cattle pastures and only 72 in sugarcane (48% bird community similarity). We further evaluated the richness and relative abundance of avian ecological groups, including habitat specialists and habitat generalists, insectivores, omnivores, granivores and frugivores. All avian groups were higher in pastures, the habitat where landscape heterogeneity and number of scattered trees was higher. Our results show that overall increasing landscape heterogeneity favors an assemblage with higher richness and composed by species with more diverse ecological functions. Therefore, we argue in favor of management practices that incorporate heterogeneity in agricultural landscapes, mainly in sugarcane fields where a homogeneous scheme has been used. Otherwise, the potential of agricultural landscapes for bird conservation will be highly hindered, particularly if the sugarcane sector expands to other agricultural lands.